It Doesn't Pay to Be A Public Darwin Doubter

American Spectator editor George Neumayr has an insightful op-ed titled “The Monkey Wrench” on the efforts by dogmatic Darwinists to stifle any criticism of Darwin’s holy writ.

Treat critics of evolution no more seriously than segregationists, Darwinists urge the media and school boards. Just as segregationists, whose views are manifestly irrational, don't deserve "equal time" in discussions, the critics of evolution don't deserve equal time either, Darwinists plead.

In a media forum aired on C-SPAN a while back, Slate 's Jacob Weisberg in effect said this to New York Times executive editor Bill Keller, upbraiding him for running stories about a school board controversy in Kansas that had quoted critics of evolution. Why did you give them equal time? Weisberg asked Keller. Would you give segregationists their say? Keller found Weisberg's criticism too radical and unfair, but assured him that anybody who read the Times 's Science section would know that the paper was in the tank for Darwin.

It will be interesting to see whether in the future the nation’s paper of record will continue its unbridled support of Darwin, or will it begin to report more accurately and fairly on the evolution debate, much as Times’ reporter Jodi Wilgoren did last May when she covered the Kansas state board of education’s hearings on evolution?

Neumayr also highlights the viewpoint discrimination and increasing instances of infringement of academic freedom suffered by academics who dare to raise scientific criticisms of Darwinism.

John West of the Discovery Institute has reported the ongoing harassment of scientists who dissent from Darwinism. He writes that at "the Smithsonian Institution, biologist Richard Sternberg, the former editor of a respected biology journal, says he faced discrimination and retaliation after accepting for publication a peer-reviewed article supportive of intelligent design last year."

At the Mississippi University for Women, West writes, "chemistry professor Nancy Bryson was removed as head of the division of natural sciences in 2003 after presenting scientific criticisms of biological and chemical evolution to a seminar of honors students."